1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure generally relates to an electronic device having a communication function, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for estimating the location of a base station, which is used to determine the location of an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, electronic devices have been widely used based on their mobility. Electronic devices may support a variety of location based services (e.g., recommending restaurants in a certain area). To support location based services it is important to accurately measure the location of the electronic devices.
To determine the location of the electronic devices, the global positioning system (GPS) is generally used. However, since reception of the GPS signal is limited due to environmental obstacles such as indoor and urban obstacles, it may be difficult to GPS. Further, the location of the electronic devices may be determined based on the distances or angles from three or more base stations, or may be determined based on the strength of the signals transmitted by the base stations as measured by the receiving electronic devices.
A variety of ways to estimate electronic device location have been studied. However, the strength of the transmitted signals may vary or the minimum number of signals required to estimate the location may not be received from the base stations due to environmental obstacles and limited performance or resources within the electronic devices. Therefore, there is a need for a location estimation method that is not affected by the signal reception environment or performance.